Blogs from North America - page 8022

after four delays and five gate changes we finally rolled into anchorage at about 9:30 pm local time. the alaskan mountain range is spectacular, even from the plane - they're just enormous and almost all snow-covered, full of ice fields and glaciers. We flew over 300 miles of mountains and then came barreling down through them to land in Anchorage. We've seen the rockies in canada and the states and they don't hold a candle to this. I can't even imagine how big Denali's going to be - it's 10000 ft higher than anything we saw on the way in.... Half the plane was filled with runners here for the marathon as well so it was a pretty rowdy de-planing, we're exhausted and it's still bloody daylight at 11:30 pm, which makes it 3am our time ... read more

The family ate in silence. They always ate in silence. This was not because of any family rule, or pious ritual. The family ate in silence because they had nothing to say to each other. The husband had grown tired of his efforts at daily small talk, and knew that no one at the table gave a shit that the toilets had flooded at work, and that once again, he was given the responsibility to clean it up. After dinner he would return to his own devices; organizing his collection of antique toy cars, polishing his 79 Cordoba, and after the family went to bed he would begin his nightly ritual: escaping to the basement to iron his clothes for work while watching his worn VHS copy of Red Shoe Diaries. But for now he ... read more

I arrived in the United States yesterday, and met up with my cousins from New Jersey. I arrived in JFK airport, then took a shuttle bus to Newark airport, which is 5 minutes from the Sisk residence. The bus ride was my first time in New York City (I had seen it from Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty when I stayed with the Sisks and Faellas (my cousins) for the summer of 1997). It's great to see the New Yorkers live up to the cultural impressions of them, ie that their larger than life attitude and language match those shown in the movies. (though I think if I ask my Jersey friends for their opinions of New Yorkers they'll give me a different response...) Unfortunatley the reverse cultural exchange may not be the same. ... read more

What a full day in London - and what a great day we had. We started with an early breakfast at our hotel, cleaned up and then walked to Buckingham Palace to get a good view of the changing of the guard. We joined several hundreds of our best friends who had already found the "perfect" spot, but one spot opened up for us - along the crowd control fence/gate at the first of three gates leading into the palace. Amidst a light intermittent drizzle, we people watched, listened to all kind of languages, talked to the police trying to keep the growing crowd either behind certain barriers or moving along, and waited for the parade. The marching band of the first wave of guards came playing some great music and then turned into the first ... read more